Singapore-My entry into Southeast Asia

As a westerner anticipating a venture into South East Asia for the first time, it seems like landing in Singapore would be a great first stop to immerse myself into a melting pot of different cultures and customs. Chinese, Malaysians, Indians are the predominant ethnic groups on the island. There are many more ethnicity’s that add to the mix and create a general feeling of acceptance of all people living on this wonderful island.

Seeing the different ethnicity’s working and living among each other, seemingly in harmony, impressed me the most during my stay here. Many places of worship for the multitude of religions are built within close proximity of each other throughout the different districts. In what other country can a multi-religious population reside on such a small land mass gather at their chosen place of worship without any hassle or worry?

The highlights of my visit include seeing the tourist attractions like Marina Bay Sands, Gardens by the Bay and Orchard Towers to name a few spots. These were cool spots for sure. If you visit, I’d recommend seeing a few of the parks around the city (since I’m a nature lover). The Chinese and Japanese Garden on Jurong Lake is my top pick.

If you get a chance to visit at dawn and early morning hours, you will see many locals outdoors exercising, dancing, stretching, doing yoga, Qi gong, singing, fishing and all sorts of cool activities to welcome the day. Witnessing these park activities for the first time energized me to get active and join along since I am not accustomed to exercise in a huge park in the early morning hours. The only reason why I was up so early was because of jet lag…

Creative, inventive, efficient, modern, clean, moving forward, fast paced, intelligent, trend setting…..these are the words that come to mind when I think of Singapore. Is there a single word that can sum up my personal perspective of Singapore after my short visit? I suppose that word would be ‘impressive”- especially through the eyes of a person from a small southern town in America.

There are so many other things that impressed me while visiting. The food. The people. The low crime rate. Feelings of being in a tropical jungle-while still in the city. The exotic birds that you can hear in the city. The general orderliness. My only regrets are that I did not take as many pictures as I should have. Having a photographer with me sure would have been nice.